Dearborn Engineer, Spring 2006 - University of Michigan - Dearborn ...

SPRING 2006
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DEARBORN
COLLABORATIVE
RESEARCH AND
EDUCATION ISSUE

The Dearborn Engineer
Spring 2006
3
CHINA PARTNERSHIP
News from the College of
Engineering and Computer Science,
University of Michigan-Dearborn
www.engin.umd.umich.edu
Collaboration 1
International Disaster Relief Team 2
Partnership Program in China 3
Group Develops Surgical Planning Tool 4
UM–D Partners with Moroccan University 5
Lear Airbag Systems Collaboration 6
Game Design Project with CCS 7
Ford Collaborates on Materials Research 8
Team Furthers Fuel Cell Research 9
UM–D and MSU Collaborate on Project 10
French Student Program Evolves 11
8 RESEARCH COLLABORATION
New Visiting Committee Members 14
Visteon: Driving Simulator Gift 15
Teamwork Produces First CECS Contest 12
Engineering News 16
Faculty Research Awards 17
2005 Donors 18
Brick Program Donor List 20
Engineering Professional
Development
Annual Alumni Reception
Inside back cover
Back cover
Editorial Board
Subrata Sengupta, Ph.D., Dean
Keshav S. Varde, Ph.D., Associate Dean
Editor: Kathryn Tamborino
11 EXCHANGE STUDENTS
The Dearborn Engineer is published for the alumni
and friends of the University of Michigan-Dearborn
College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Send correspondence to the Editor, Dearborn Engineer,
4901 Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI 48128-1491.
Regents of the University
David A. Brandon, Laurence B. Deitch,
Olivia P. Maynard, Rebecca McGowan,
Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner,
S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White,
Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio)
12 HIGH SCHOOL CONTEST
Citizens Advisory Committee
Ismael Ahmed, Stephen T. Economy, Linda P. Kughn,
Patricia Mooradian, Timothy J. O’Brien, Jon Pepper,
Michael C. Porter, Maria Leonhauser Rosenau,
Shirley R. Stancato

SPRING 2006
Collaboration Brings Together Educators,
Students, Industry from Around the World
As the world, its problems, and its
technologies become increasingly complex,
it becomes progressively more important to share and
combine expertise to craft solutions. This issue of the
Dearborn Engineer therefore focuses on some of the
recent collaborative programs and efforts between
the engineering staff and students in the College of
Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) and a
wide assortment of individuals and institutions here
and abroad.
“Collaboration is absolutely crucial in an increasingly
interconnected world,” says Dean Subrata Sengupta.
“Not only are engineering tasks becoming more complex,
requiring that we draw on skills from multiple disciplines,
but also teams today are often multinational or based
in multiple locations around the world. So successful
collaboration includes the ability to work not only with
folks from different disciplines but also with people from
various cultures.”
The recent collaboration with CCS on game design helps
our faculty and students learn from each other and develop
new skills on working within an interdisciplinary team.
In the international arena, we now have exchanges with
Sweden and China and have developed collaborative
programs with the former Soviet Union, France, Spain,
and Germany over the years.”
With the explosion of the internet and the emergent
global economy, collaboration is a trend that will only
grow in importance in the coming years. “I’d like to see
us branch out to work with universities in even more
countries,” says Ed Williams, who initiated bringing the
latest group of French students to CECS last year. “In the
end, we have to learn to get along
with each other.”
Today, CECS is involved in more collaborative projects
than ever before. This issue highlights a few of those
projects, ranging from joint research with faculty and
students in Pakistan, Morocco, Latvia, and Russia to a
distance-learning program in China and a student
exchange with France. Closer to home, articles in this
issue showcase consultancies and research studies with
corporations like Lear and Ford, interdisciplinary classes
with the College for Creative Studies (CCS), combined
research with local universities like Wayne State and UM-
Ann Arbor, and the involvement of alumni in the development
and execution of a successful engineering contest for
area high school students.
“We are becoming more and more global in our outlook,”
says Sengupta, “collaborating with other institutions,
both locally and globally, as well as with
schools that have other skill sets. CCS, for example,
brings an aspect of creativity to computer science
and engineering that we don’t have.
NIKOLAI SHILOV AND ALEXANDER SMIRNOV
OF THE ST. PETERSBURG INSTITUTE FOR
INFORMATICS AND AUTOMATION OF THE
RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

DEARBORN Engineer
International Team Studies Processes
to Manage Disaster Relief, Health Care
As Hurricane Katrina aptly demonstrated, when
disaster strikes on a large scale, getting the right supplies to
the right places on time is of paramount importance. A team
of collaborators from universities in the U.S., Russia, and
Latvia are working together to study issues related to planning,
organizing, and committing resources aimed at providing
disaster relief and managing health care costs.
In 1999, the team began to form when Alexander Smirnov,
head of a computer-aided integrated systems laboratory and
deputy director for research at the St. Petersburg Institute
for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of
Sciences (SPIIRAS), arrived at UM-Dearborn to do a one-year
sabbatical. While here, he and Charu Chandra, associate
professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering
at UM-Dearborn, quickly discovered similar research
interests and began to work together on solving supply-chain
issues. To date, they have co-authored and published more
than 20 research papers on such topics as supply-chain
integration problems in the automotive industry. They
have also organized lectures, workshops, and seminars
together and regularly visit each other’s universities.
and quickly,” says Chandra. “This will result in
manning resources most efficiently when and where
they’re most needed.”
The team combines various models, or real-world simulations,
together into hybrid models to test processes and approaches
to solving these issues. “Each model has its characteristic
strengths and weaknesses,” says Chandra. “So an adequate
representation of complex behavior of enterprises and
their networks is difficult if you use just a single model.
Hybrid modeling combines optimization and simulation
models in order to obtain a more comprehensive
representation of the problem.”
Chandra is excited about the team’s results thus far and their
potential to achieve greater goals in the future. “I believe this
collaborative effort has been a win-win proposition for my
collaborators and me,” he says. “We are planning to continue
to build on this relationship for a long time to come.”
CHARU CHANDRA AND JANIS GRABIS
Two other collaborators, Janis Grabis, associate
professor at the Institute of Information Technology,
Riga Technical University, in Riga, Latvia, and Dr. Nikolai
Shilov, who works with Smirnov at the integrated
systems laboratory at SPIIRAS as a senior researcher,
were invited to join the team during their doctorate
and post-doctorate research at UM-Dearborn. Grabis
has co-authored fifteen papers on supply-chain
configuration with Chandra over the past five years.
Today, the team is applying some of its combined
research on manufacturing supply-chain concerns to
issues surrounding the management of health care costs
and disaster recovery efforts. “We’re looking at strategic
as well as operational models to enhance process
improvements,” says Chandra. “The process improvements
we plan to propose will ideally improve logistics
throughout the health care supply chain, which should
enhance health care and bring down costs for both
key stakeholders and ultimately the patient.”
In particular, the team is modeling techniques to
improve the way and speed in which information is
created, handled, and shared. “We want to help
make it possible to react speedily in a fast-changing,
uncertain environment, like the one faced by disaster
workers, by suggesting appropriate logistics-related
alternatives to help them make decisions accurately
2

SPRING 2006
Educational Partnership with China
Furthers Expertise, Understanding
Four years ago, Yubao Chen,
professor of industrial and
manufacturing systems
engineering, went to China
on sabbatical and visited several
universities. While there, he began
to consider the benefits of an
educational association with China
and set in motion what has today
become the Partnership Program in
China, with the collective efforts of
several of the college’s faculty and
staff members. “Education must be
globalized,” says Chen. “Its focus can
no longer remain purely local. When
I go to China, I see companies from
the U.S., Japan, Germany, and other
countries working there. Our customers,
like Ford, are in China now. We
need to be able to keep up with the
rapidly changing needs of industry.”
The Partnership Program in China
at UM-Dearborn offers a master’s
degree in automotive systems
engineering to qualified Chinese
students through three universities
in China: Xian Jiaotong University, Tongji University, and
Chongqing University. Students must complete 30 credit
hours of interdisciplinary study through online courses
offered by UM-Dearborn. They also complete a capstone
project, which allows Chinese students to team together
with engineering students in Dearborn over the internet
and potentially through internships here. Once the program
reaches a sufficient size, faculty from UM-Dearborn will also
travel to China for short periods to meet with students and
offer live tutoring, feedback, and lectures. Chinese faculty
will provide tutoring on an ongoing basis.
An undergraduate program, which would feature course
offerings from Shanghai University of Engineering and
Science with guidance from UM-Dearborn, is currently in
the planning stages. Both programs offer students from
China the opportunity to come to Dearborn to complete
their studies or do internships here.
Faculty will also visit one another’s universities for longer
periods under this partnership to work with and learn
YUBAO CHEN (LEFT) AND UM–D PROVOST ROBERT SIMPSON (RIGHT) DURING A VISIT TO
TONGJI UNIVERSITY IN SHANGHAI
from each other. “The faculty exchange program allows
us to not only help educators in China but also to benefit
from their expertise and knowledge here,” says Chen.
“Both sides benefit when we collaborate.”
There are currently four students admitted in the graduate
program, which is slated to begin in the summer or
fall. “We have had far more applicants, many of whom are
good engineers,” says Chen, “but the English language
requirement is a stumbling block. Finances are also an
issue for Chinese students.”
“In China, they believe that American higher education is
the best in the world,” says Chen. “If they have a chance
to study here, that’s their first choice. Our program is
strong; I have no doubt that we can attract quality
students to come here. In addition to simply increasing
our enrollment, I believe they would greatly enhance
our student life here on campus. Education is something
we can use to help each other understand one another,
our values, our way of doing things. That’s why I’m
involved in this.”
3

DEARBORN Engineer
Collaborative Team Develops Tool to
Predict Surgical Paths through the Brain
A collaborative project
between UM-Dearborn,
Wayne State University,
and UM-Ann Arbor
hopes to provide the means
for neurosurgeons to use
computers to help them remove
brain tumors. Dr. William Grosky,
professor and chair of computer
and information science at
UM-Dearborn, is working
with the computer science
department at Wayne State,
Dr. Murali Guthikonda at UM’s
medical school, and a Ph.D.
student at UM-Ann Arbor to
help develop a tool that will
enable surgeons to predict a safe
pathway into the brain.
“A key component of computerassisted
neurosurgery is a
surgical preplanning step, in
which the surgeon needs to
plan a path of entry to a tumor
that needs to be removed,” says
Grosky. “The goal of this preplanning
step is to find a path
that causes the least damage.”
WILLIAM GROSKY
Due to the current instrumentation,
this path through the brain is always a straight line.
Surgeons must figure out which structures within the brain
will be affected by any given path before deciding how to
proceed. Grosky’s team is working on a way to predict that
path in three dimensions, based on the patient’s unique
physiology. Other teams are also contributing to the project,
solving such problems as isolating different structures of the
brain and representing them in three dimensions through a
process known as segmentation.
“High-resolution images of the brain can be obtained using
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) both before and during
the surgery,” says Grosky. “Through segmentation, different
anatomical features are identified and broken down
into polygonal regions suitable for storage. We’re looking
at defining which brain structures intersect with potential
surgical trajectories that originate from a number of chosen
points on the surface of the brain and end in the tumor.”
To perform this task, Grosky’s team is using a new type
of spatial query called a radial query. The radial query is
represented by a line in multidimensional space rather than
simply in two dimensions. “The results of the query are
all objects in a data set that intersect the line, or all parts
of the brain that will be touched by a given path to the
tumor,” says Grosky. “The goal is to find a path that
causes the least damage.”
“The outcome will hopefully be commercialized to
neurosurgeons,” says Grosky. “The overall goal of this
project, and other similar projects, is to develop a commercial,
cost-effective, and accurate product we’re calling Smart
Image-Guided Neurosurgery System (SIGNS). The product
will be used in image-guided surgery and will generate safe
and accurate surgical corridors. These surgical corridors will
take into account the potential brain structure movement
and deformation during surgery. SIGNS will also monitor and
predict deformation during surgery, and provide accurate
and real-time intra-operative information to the surgeon.”
Funded by a 2003 grant from the Michigan Life Science
Corridor, Grosky’s team finishes its current project phase
this summer, but future proposals are currently under
development. “It’s going very well,” he says.
4

SPRING 2006
Team Seeks to Find Better Search
Methods for Content Retrieval
Along with the dramatic rise of multimedia
technology and digitized documents has come
the emergent problem of finding the files or information
one needs. As a result, it has become increasingly critical
to develop accurate and powerful ways to search for data.
While well-known search engines like Google have provided
a means to perform text searches, a useful way to search by
more complex image and video data remains elusive.
William Grosky, professor and chair of computer and
information science at UM-Dearborn, is working with
a team of collaborators from Université Mohammed
V-Agdal, in Rabat, Morocco, to develop improved methods
for information retrieval. Collaborators from Rabat include
Dr. Driss Aboutajdine, head of the university’s computer
science and telecommunications research laboratory, and
Ph.D. student Fadoua Ataa-Allah, who splits her time
between Morocco and Dearborn. “I am quite interested
in this field,” says Ataa-Allah, “in part because it is
relatively new, and also because few applications
currently exist for the Arabic language.”
The team is focusing on both text and image retrieval
strategies. “A text retrieval is like a Google search, where
the user supplies keywords and phrases and the system
attempts to retrieve the most relevant documents, such
as articles and web pages,” says Grosky. “We’re currently
examining the details of some search techniques using
linear algebraic techniques, which have shown much
better results than standard techniques. We’re attempting
to capture the core meaning of a document without being
misled by various unimportant pieces of information.”
The team also hopes to apply these techniques to contentbased
retrieval, which goes beyond finding text files in
addressing the far more complicated content of images.
“There is an even greater demand for retrieval and
management tools for visual data,” says Grosky. Image
retrieval techniques should provide support for user queries
in an effective and efficient way, just as conventional
information retrieval does for textual retrieval.”
Challenges here include going beyond a relatively
straightforward search, like “lions,” and going to a more
high-level, abstract search, like “peaceful scenes.” Factors
to consider include color ranges, texture, and shape, as
well as the more-difficult-to-pinpoint semantics, which
vary from user to user.
“As the ultimate goal of image retrieval is to serve the needs
and wants of users who may not even know what they are
looking for but can recognize it when they see it, there has
been much work done in trying to discover what is in the
mind of the user,” says Grosky. “Needless to say, human
beings are much better than computers at extracting and
making use of semantic information from images.”
Ataa-Allah, who hopes to finish her Ph.D. within the
coming year, continues to find the collaborative project
rewarding. “Working in collaboration with Drs. Aboutajdine
and Grosky is very interesting to me,” she says. “I benefit
primarily from their competence and research experience,
and secondly from their knowledge of my subject. This
work is particularly important because of the current
explosion of available data. We must find an improvement
over the text retrieval systems we have today.”
“This work is technically important,” agrees Aboutajdine,
“but my hope is that it will also result
in tools that can help American
and Arab people understand
one another better.”
FADOUA ATAA-
ALLAH (LEFT) AND
PH.D. STUDENT
MAJDOULINE HANFI
(RIGHT)
5

DEARBORN Engineer
Graduate Course Leads to
Airbag System Project with Lear
A graduate course in
pattern recognition
brought Malayappan
Shridhar, professor and chair
of electrical and computer
engineering, to Lear Corporation
and led to a two-year consultancy
there that ended in 2005.
Karl Kennedy, a senior engineer
at Lear and graduate student in
electrical engineering, was
taking Shridhar’s class in 2003
while doing advanced product
development for embedded
systems at Lear’s seating and
electrical divisions. “In my
class I mentioned several case
studies in which I was the
principal investigator,” says
Shridhar. “I guess Karl felt that
I was the ideal person to help
Lear with its project.”
6
Kennedy introduced Shridhar to
his associates, which opened up
opportunities for discussion. “Lear
had a deadline to meet and they were looking for a local
expert to help them tackle some challenging issues,” says
Shridhar. “They had a good system, but it needed critical
refinements. My prior record and my easy availability were
two factors that influenced Lear to hire me.”
KARL KENNEDY AND MALAYAPPAN SHRIDHAR
The project on which Lear required Shridhar’s help dealt
with an airbag activation system that could detect the size
and weight of a person sitting in a vehicle’s seat. “While
airbags have generally functioned very well and have saved
innumerable lives, there have been some passenger deaths
attributed to the forceful activation of the airbag,” says
Shridhar. “Children and some lightweight people have been
the primary victims.”
Prompted by these deaths, the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration developed a new standard for
airbag activation and has mandated that these devices be
incorporated in all future cars beginning sometime this year.
This new standard requires the safety system to recognize
the type of person in the passenger seat, based on one
of a set of defined size and weight categories.
“Lear was developing an airbag activation system that
would categorize the passenger as belonging to one of
the prescribed categories and accordingly send the correct
signal to the airbag activation system,” says Shridhar.
“They used an array of sensors embedded in the seat and
devised an algorithm to process the sensor data and decide
on the category of the passenger. It was this area where my
expertise was required. I helped Lear design a sensor-based
passenger classification system. I helped them to conduct
detailed misclassification analysis, sensitivity analysis, and
sensor failure analysis. This allowed them to develop an
accurate and robust passenger classification system.”
Most of Shridhar’s research for Lear involved data-mining to
determine possible overlaps among categories, sensitivity
analysis, and optimal sensor configuration. He worked as part
of a team of materials, mechanical, and electrical engineers
within Lear, including director John Nathan, mechanical engineer
Oliver Young, and Kennedy.
“Even my son, who has a dual bachelor’s degree in electrical
engineering and computer engineering from UM-
Dearborn, assisted,” says Shridhar. “He helped me develop
the analysis software and its graphical display.”
At the conclusion of Shridhar’s consultancy, Lear had a
fully developed, working system. Today, it is being marketed
to industry. “Hopefully, car manufacturers in the
U.S., Europe, and elsewhere will find the Lear system the
best product on the market for its price and performance,”
he says. “This was a personally rewarding experience. I
am particularly happy that my graduate course resulted in
this consultancy.”

SPRING 2006
Game Design Course Brings
UM-Dearborn and CCS Students Together
A group of software engineering students
from UM-Dearborn and graphic design
students from the Center for Creative
Studies (CCS) have found a productive way to
combine work and play. Students who participate in
the new course Game Design and Implementation 2
work in teams to create actual 3D computer games.
The two games under development this spring are
Insect Wars, a real-time strategy game, and Noon of
the Dead, a first-person shooter.
The games were selected by class vote during the winter
after each student presented a high-level game idea.
The winning game idea (created by Dustin Kelley from
UM-Dearborn and James Kells from CCS) was chosen by
a vote among the CCS and UM-D students, says Bruce
Maxim, associate professor of computer and information
science, for different reasons. “The potential for interesting
visual effects seemed to dominate the thinking from
CCS students,” he says, “while the UM-Dearborn students
looked more at the potential for interesting game play.”
The class’s collaborative approach to game development
came about when Maxim and William Grosky, chair and
professor of computer and information science,
began to look into creating a game
development camp for high school students.
They realized they would need assistance
in game art and design, so they approached
CCS. Out of that meeting, CCS faculty member
Ben Ridgway and Maxim agreed to teach
a game design course together and allow
students from the two disciplines to learn
from each other.
Students meet with each other at both campuses and
also share files through an online depository. They also
use chat rooms and electronic meeting software to
communicate requirements and progress. Maxim
provides lectures on 3D graphics and artificial intelligence
for games, but most of his project input focuses on
coaching and critiquing the evolving games.
“The primary debate in the class focuses on limiting
feature creep and which elements they should add within
each incremental phase of the project,” says Maxim.
“The artists want to add more and more to the game
artistic elements, but the teams are required to stick with
a production schedule. Both groups of students are working
as true collaborators in multidisciplinary teams.”
Maxim and Ridgway hope to make enough progress
this semester to allow the students to enter the two
games in the International Game Developers Association
student competition next year. “They’re doing a great job,
so I’m hopeful,” he says. “I think this collaboration gives
the students a good sense of what working on a large
game project is about.”
The students work in two teams, each
focusing on a different game. Each team
contains both engineering and graphic
design students. Software engineering
students from UM-Dearborn manage the
project, set the development schedule, and
set the game requirements in collaboration
with the CCS students. The CCS students
contribute graphical design, screen layouts,
and artwork according to the technical
specifications set by the engineering
students. Both groups of students work
together to develop the story lines for the
games. The engineering students define the
scope for each incremental phase of their
project, and determine which multimedia
game assets and graphics are needed for
the evolving game prototype.
UM-D AND CCS TEAM MEMBERS COLLABORATED ON A GAME DESIGN PROJECT
THIS PAST SEMESTER.
7

DEARBORN Engineer
Ford Works with UM-Dearborn
Students, Faculty to Study Corrosion
of Lightweight Materials
As gas prices climb, the push to create more
fuel-efficient cars intensifies. For years, the automotive
industry has sought to reduce the weight of vehicles
through the study of lightweight materials. Today,
some of the more promising lightweight materials
under scrutiny are magnesium alloys.
“Magnesium alloys are among the lightest of all
structural metals,” says Pankaj Mallick, professor of
mechanical engineering and director of interdisciplinary
programs at UM-Dearborn. “It is abundantly available
but has not yet been used in any quantity at all. There
are still many unknowns about how it will behave in an
automotive environment.”
About three years ago, Mallick’s longtime associate
Dr. Robert McCune, technical leader of the Corrosion
Group at Ford Motor Company’s Research and Innovation
Laboratory, contacted Mallick to discuss a proposed
Department of Energy project through the United States
Automotive Materials Partnership (USAMP) to study
corrosion of magnesium. Ultimately, UM-Dearborn became
one of four universities across the country to win grant
money to pursue several different research projects on
magnesium. Since then, Mallick and McCune have worked
closely on the project with a small team of graduate students
from UM-Dearborn. This year, a postdoctoral research
associate from Australia is expected to join the project.
“Bob [McCune] was instrumental in getting us involved in
the USAMP project,” says Mallick. “He also offered us the
use of Ford’s excellent experimental facilities and took on a
mentoring role as well as a collaborative one.” McCune and
other Ford staff initially helped the students learn how to
use the equipment at Ford’s facilities. The team also uses
labs at UM-Dearborn and the ion beam laboratory at
UM-Ann Arbor.
At the start of the project, the team studied and
evaluated methods for testing corrosion in magnesium
alloys, which can differ from those used when testing
better-understood materials like steel or aluminum. “The
first phase of the project involved comparing different
test methods,” says Mallick. “Now we’re starting the
next phase, which examines how
magnesium alloys corrode in the
presence of engine coolants. We
want to see how magnesium
alloys would react if we used
them to build an engine block.”
The two original graduate
students on the project did their
dissertations based on their
research. McCune participated
on their dissertation committees
and plans to continue to
co-supervise the next students
who will be working on the
project. “His participation as a
mentor and advisor has been
invaluable,” says Mallick. “Overall,
the collaboration has been a very
helpful and productive one.”
PANKAJ MALLICK

SPRING 2006
International Collaboration
Furthers Fuel Cell Research
Tariq Shamim, associate professor of
mechanical engineering, has extended
his work on fuel cell research to include
collaboration with N.E.D. University of
Engineering and Technology in Karachi,
Pakistan. In December of 2004, Shamim
visited the university at the end of
his sabbatical leave and delivered a
series of lectures on his research. “Our
collaboration together began during
informal discussions with the faculty
members there,” he says.
Shamim and Roohul-Qadeer Hamid,
professor and chair of automotive and
marine engineering in Karachi, are
working together to supervise N.E.D.
automotive engineering doctoral
student Amber Zafar, who is studying
fuel cells. “I’m providing guidance on
various aspects of her thesis work,”
says Shamim, “including helping her
to develop a formal thesis proposal
and research plan and methodology. I’m
also monitoring and reviewing
her research progress.”
TARIQ SHAMIM
Through experimental and numerical
investigation of the transport mechanism
within the fuel cell stack, Shamim and Zafar are studying
the effect of various impurities on fuel cell performance.
The main objective of the research is to improve fuel cell
performance through more efficient design.
“Mobile and stationary energy conversion systems play
a major role in contributing to air pollution and fossil fuel
utilization,” says Shamim. “The scenario is getting even
more complicated by the predictions that oil and gas
reserves may not keep up with the world demand.
These challenges require that efficient energy conversion
systems be developed and utilized in mobile and
stationary applications. It is equally important that
these systems be economically viable and environmentally
sound. Fuel cell technology presents a promising
candidate for achieving improvement in energy
conversion efficiency and reducing air pollution.”
secured through N.E.D. University and Pakistani
national agencies.
Shamim finds the collaboration beneficial on a number of
levels. “It allows me to work with a fully funded student
to help further this research,” he says. “It also allows me
to use N.E.D.’s state-of-the-art fuel cell control unit, and it
provides my work with a more global aspect. I’m also able
to bring a certain expertise to N.E.D. that they currently
lack. We all benefit.”
Although Zafar is expected to graduate in two years,
Shamim anticipates that the collaboration will continue
on other projects. “International collaboration is extremely
useful in bringing an international perspective to the
classroom,” he says. “It helps us prepare students to
compete globally.”
Although most of their communication is through email,
Shamim visits Karachi annually, and plans are being made
to bring Zafar to Dearborn in the near future. Funding is
9

DEARBORN Engineer
UM-D and MSU Partner to Deliver New
Methods of Database Indexing
Collaboration between UM-
Dearborn and Michigan State
University (MSU) is producing
potentially groundbreaking results
in a relatively new field within database
indexing. Most existing databases allow
efficient searches using indexing based on
ordered information, such as alphabetical or
numeric lists. But some data, such as genetic
codes, have no such natural ordering.
This sort of unordered database is said to
belong to multidimensional non-ordered
discrete data spaces (NDDS), and no efficient
way to search them currently exists.
CECS associate professor of computer
science Qiang Zhu believes that he and
MSU professor of computer science Sakti
Pramanik, together with their team of
graduate and undergraduate students,
are in the process of developing two possible
index methods to handle efficient NDDS searches.
“Existing index methods either cannot be directly applied
to searching this type of database or provide only suboptimal
performance,” says Zhu. “Our joint research team has
developed two novel index methods, and theoretical and
empirical studies have shown that each is quite promising
in supporting efficient NDDS searches. We expect that the
research results from this project will have a significant
impact on indexing techniques in the database field.”
The challenge has become acute in recent years with
scientists trying to search for information within the vast
and growing genome database. Genome sequences follow
no alpha-numeric ordering, and database searches were
slow and inefficient. On a 2002 sabbatical at MSU, Zhu
and Pramanik discussed potential solutions and decided to
work together to solve the problem. Their project initially
received seed money from UM-Dearborn and UM-Ann
Arbor. After overcoming numerous challenges, their preliminary
results were presented at the VLDB (Very Large
Data Bases) conference in 2003.
In 2005, they won funding from the National Science
Foundation (NSF), and their more recent results have
appeared in Association for Computing Machinery journals
Transactions on Database Systems and Transactions
on Information Systems. Today the team includes three
graduate and three undergraduate students from both
universities.
QIANG ZHU AND GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH ASSISTANT HYUN-JEONG SEOK
The group calls its new index methods the ND- (nonordered
discrete) and the NSP- (non-ordered space
partitioning) trees. “Unlike the index you might see at
the back of a book, an index for a database is organized as
a tree rather than a simple list,” says Zhu. “When you ask
for a piece of information, the search in the database follows
a path from the root of the tree through what we call
nodes—like branches—and eventually to a “leaf”
containing the address within the database of the piece
of information you wanted. That address is returned to
you, and you can then pull up the information.”
The trees are multidimensional, but the challenge is to
keep the tree relatively “short” and without much extra
space in order to return results quickly. It also helps to
keep the trees from having too much overlap, which
would also reduce search time. The team’s ND-tree solves
the problem of keeping tree space down, while the NSPtree
eliminates overlapping. “Each method has its pros
and cons,” says Zhu.
NSF funding for the project is anticipated to last until
2008, but Zhu expects the project to continue beyond
that. “Research will go on for several more years,” he
says, “since new and interesting issues continue to
emerge. No one else has done similar work in developing
index methods specifically for non-ordered, discrete data.
That’s why our project is unique.”
10 10

SPRING 2006
French Student
Program Mutually
Beneficial
When the French student program at the
College of Engineering and Computer Science
was in its discussion stages a few years ago, total
immersion in the English language arose as a key
selling point. “When I attended a conference in 2001 at
the École Polytechnique Universitaire de Marseille,” says
Ed Williams, adjunct lecturer at UM-Dearborn’s School
of Management and the Department of Industrial and
Manufacturing Systems Engineering, “Professor Aziz
Naamane mentioned that he wanted to send some of his
best engineering students to areas where French was not
spoken.” Williams readily agreed to collaborate, and the
first batch of French students from École Polytechnique
arrived in 2003.
English through immersion continues to be a major draw
for the program. This past summer, a second group of
French engineering students spent two months studying
at CECS, and the five young scholars found the experience
highly rewarding. “We wanted to come to the U.S. in
order to improve our English,” says École Polytechnique
student Sandrine Daunizeau, “but we also wanted to
experience American society and learn about the way
Americans think. We really enjoyed meeting Americans;
they were so friendly.”
BACK ROW: ONUR ULGEN, PIERRE HERRIBERRY, LUDOVIC BERAIZIAT, ED WILLIAMS
FRONT ROW: CHRISTOPHE DOSI, MARJOLAINE HERBERT, SANDRINE DAUNIZEAU
As their English language skills noticeably improved, the
five students—Daunizeau, Ludovic Beraiziat, Christophe
Dosi, Marjolaine Herbert, and Pierre Herriberry—managed
to visit other North American cities and sites, including
Chicago, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and New York City. “New
York impressed us,” says Daunizeau. “We had never
before seen skyscrapers like that.”
Even their work at CECS, which focused on investigating
and developing instructional case studies for various
analytical software packages, broadened their international
perspective. With the help of program coordinators Joan
Mrofka and Emily Wang, the students were able to have
numerous informal conversations about industrial
engineering, culture, and academic research with other
scholars from not only the U.S. but also the Sudan, Japan,
Mexico, and Russia.
Through industry connections, the students were
introduced to some local companies, where they observed
how industrial engineering techniques are applied in
the U.S. “We had more interactions with local, working
industrial engineers than we were able to provide with
the first group of French students,” says Onur Ulgen,
professor of industrial and manufacturing systems
engineering. Ulgen oversaw the students’ research in the
simulation and automation laboratory.
The laboratory, located in the new engineering complex,
houses software packages for course or independent
study work such as the case studies examined by the
École Polytechnique students. “Because the French curriculum
does not go into detail on several applied topics,
such as simulation and scheduling, we focused on those
tools and their applications in detail,” says Ulgen.
The benefits of the program have not been one-sided,
however. “Through the students, we learned about curricula
and instructional methods in France,” says Williams.
“And when old friends of mine from Ford met the students,
they obtained a better understanding of European
students’ training and qualifications.”
Although there are currently no formal plans to expand
the program, Williams continues to have periodic, tentative
discussions with colleagues in Italy, France, Sweden,
and Latvia. “It’s a small planet,” he explains. “Programs
like this help us all get along.”
11

DEARBORN Engineer
Faculty, Students, and Alumni
Work Together to Make Engineering
“Real” to High School Students
This past March, UM-Dearborn’s College of Engineering and
Computer Science and its Alumni Affiliate worked together
to run a highly successful contest for area high school
students. The contest, which was open at no cost to high
school juniors and seniors, featured two categories:
engineering and computer programming. Students entered
one or the other category as individuals or as two-person
teams to compete for cash or tuition prizes. The first-place
team members in each category received their choice of
either a $2,000 partial tuition scholarship at CECS or a $500
cash award. Second- and third-place team members received
Barnes & Noble gift cards of $200 and $100.
12
In addition to participating in the actual contests, entrants
heard from CECS students and faculty about issues related
to the fields and study of engineering and computer science,
culminating with demonstrations of various student projects,
including award-winning Baja vehicles and robots. Alumni
also spoke about their current work in the industry.
Two juniors from the Plymouth-Canton Centennial
Educational Park, Eric Marion and Jake Poznanski, won the
computer programming contest, while seniors Jakob Yonan
and Suraj Bhamra from Henry Ford II High School in Sterling
Heights won the engineering competition. Their sponsors
were teachers Ron Carlson and Scott Spry, respectively.
“The contest was designed to increase opportunities for
high school students to participate in an event that emphasized
technical capabilities and skills,” says Dean Subrata
Sengupta. “The Alumni Affiliate truly spearheaded making
this event become a reality. They not only pursued the
original idea but also played a strong role in making sure
that all the different groups of people required to make this
work were kept together. In particular, John Cole, chair of
the Alumni Affiliate, provided great leadership in getting faculty,
volunteers, alumni, and high school students together.
Between John and Kathryn Tamborino, communication and
external relations manager, the event was very well organized.
Also, people from the student advising office played a
major role in its success.”
“This contest is the culmination of a vision the CECS
alumni board has had for the past two years,” says Cole.
“We wanted to dispel the common myth that the field of
engineering in this country is dying. And we wanted to
provide a chance for high school students to experience
engineering, not just hear about it. We wanted them to
experience first-hand what engineering looks and feels
like. In the process, we got a chance to show off UM-
Dearborn and expose
many high school
juniors and seniors to
who and what we are.”
The computer programming
competition featured
five problems for
the teams to solve within
a two-hour timeframe.
The problems, designed
and judged by Alumni
Affiliate member Henry
Hojnacki and faculty
members from the computer
and information
science (CIS) department,
required the teams
to create a program to
unscramble an encrypted
message based on a
rotating cypher, calculate
all possible times for a
broken Martian clock based on LED bars displayed, design
an Olympic scoring program, program a box that serves text
messages to cell phones, and calculate how many squares
of cloth could be produced from a shipment of material with
a cutting system that operated on specific parameters. The
winning team completed all five problems successfully in
approximately 90 minutes.
“I got involved in the contest so that our department
might attract more bright computer science students,”
says Bruce Elenbogen, associate professor of computer

SPRING 2006
Engineering
Contest Winners
1ST PLACE
Jakob Yonan
and Suraj Bhamra
Henry Ford II
High School
2ND PLACE
Adam Clarke
and Scott Proulx
Walled Lake
Northern High School
ENGINEERING TEAMS
DESIGNED AND BUILT A
BATTERY-OPERATED CAR
AND COMPETED AGAINST
EACH OTHER.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
CONTESTANTS SOLVED FIVE
PROBLEMS WITHIN A TWO-
HOUR PERIOD.
3RD PLACE (TIE)
Daniel Ryan
and Mike Ryan
Washington Academy
Home School
Bradley Schmidt
and Jeremy Freimark
Huron Valley Lutheran
High School
and information science. “Although we put the teams in an extreme programming situation for the
contest, it was surprisingly like the crises that occasionally occur in the real world, when time limits
and teamwork play a critical role in success.”
“Considering the fact that the contestants were high school students, I think they did well,” says
Kiumi Akingbehin, professor of computer and information science.
Eighteen teams participated in the computer programming competition, nearly double what was
anticipated. Twenty teams participated in the engineering competition, also a higher number than
expected. Alan Argento, professor of mechanical engineering, and N. Natarajan, associate professor
of electrical and computer engineering, designed and supervised the contest.
Each engineering team designed and built a battery-operated car using materials and equipment
available in CECS labs. The teams then competed against each other for speed and distance during
two trial runs. They were given the opportunity to observe problems with their vehicles and redesign
them before the final competition.
“The winning team completely redesigned their car between the first and second trial,” says
Argento. “They ended up winning the competition in the final round by just one second over the
second-place team.”
UM-Dearborn students supervised the teams in the labs and then ran, timed, and scored the races.
“I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the CECS student helpers as well as the high school students
themselves,” says Argento. “I think we should do it again, especially if it helps bring more
bright students to UM-Dearborn in the future.”
Computer
Programming
Contest Winners
1ST PLACE
Eric Marion and
Jake Poznanski
Salem and
Plymouth High Schools
2ND PLACE
Aaron C. Curley
Good Counsel Home
School
3RD PLACE
John Palgut and
Dan Anthony
Plymouth and
Canton High Schools
13

DEARBORN Engineer
Welcome, New Visiting Committee Members
The college’s Visiting Committee provides insight,
feedback, and advice about college programs and helps
formulate ongoing strategic direction for the school. Please
join us in welcoming our newest members.
PATRICK BASSETT
Director,
Thermal Systems Engineering
DENSO International America, Inc.
As director of thermal
systems engineering at
DENSO International
America, Inc. (DIAM), Patrick
Bassett is responsible for
all of DIAM’s thermal design
and development business
for General Motors. Bassett’s
department designs and
develops heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC)
and powertrain cooling systems found on several General
Motors models.
Bassett began working at DIAM in 1987, joining the climate
control department as a design engineer, and played a key
role in DIAM’s HVAC business with Chrysler. He remained
at DIAM until he began a two-year expatriate assignment
at DENSO Corporation in 1994 working on a Toyota project.
On Bassett’s return to DIAM, he led the team responsible
for establishing and expanding DIAM’s thermal business
with General Motors. In 2002, Bassett was promoted to
his current position.
Bassett is an alumnus of the University of Michigan-
Dearborn, where he earned a bachelor of science in
mechanical engineering in 1986. He is also a member of Tau
Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and SAE International.
MARK PERLICK
Corporate Vice President,
Advanced Technology
BorgWarner Inc.
Mark Perlick has been
corporate vice president,
advanced technology, of
BorgWarner Inc. since July
2005. Before taking on his
current position, he was
president of BorgWarner
Transmission Systems
from September 2004 until June 2005. This was preceded
by his tenure as acting president of Transmission Systems
from November 2003 until August 2004. Perlick also held
positions as vice president, engineering, of TorqTransfer
Systems from February 1999 until October 2003 and acting
president of TorqTransfer Systems from February 2002 to
December 2002.
From 1990 to 2002, Perlick worked at General Motors
Corporation as chief engineer in several areas, including
continuously variable transmissions, transmission launch
center, and 4T40E transmission. He also served as manager
of production programs.
Perlick graduated from the General Motors Institute with a
bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He is also a
member of SAE International.
DAVID T. SZCZUPAK
Group Vice President,
Manufacturing
Ford Motor Company
David T. Szczupak is group
vice president, manufacturing,
the Americas, a position
he has held since November
2005. He oversees all
assembly, stamping, and
powertrain operations and
engineering. This includes
43 manufacturing plants in
the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Additionally, he is responsible for material planning
and logistics, advanced and manufacturing engineering,
and Ford Land.
Prior to this assignment, Szczupak served as vice president,
powertrain operations, where he was responsible for engine
and transmission engineering worldwide and for powertrain
manufacturing in North America.
From April 1999 to October 2001, Szczupak was a chief
engineer for powertrain operations, leading powertrain
engineering development and strategy for all Ford Motor
Company brands.
Szczupak joined Jaguar in 1985 as a senior manager in
advanced powertrain. He went on to serve in a number of
chief engineering and management positions in Jaguar’s
engine operations. In his last Jaguar assignment, he was
chief program engineer for Jaguar S-Type.
Szczupak holds a master’s degree in automotive
engineering from Cranfield Institute of Technology in
the United Kingdom. He currently serves on the board
of directors for Volvo Car Corporation.
14

SPRING 2006
Visteon Driving Simulator Gift Enables
New Research Horizons at IAVS
Thanks to the generosity of Visteon,
the Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems
(IAVS) now owns a municipal driving simulator.
The gift was made possible by Visteon’s
John Kill, senior vice president and president,
North America Customer Group; Al Woodliff,
director of Advanced Business Development;
and Mark Jarvis and Greg Sadler, technology
acquisition managers, Advanced Cross-Systems
Development.
The driving simulator, created by FAAC of
Ann Arbor and installed by FAAC’s director of
commercial vehicle operations, Steve Olsen,
was originally created to teach advanced driving
skills in emergency situations through re-creating
various driving conditions in a virtual environment.
The simulator was recently installed
in the Engineering Complex and will be moved
to IAVS’ new quarters once they are completed.
The new building’s high ceilings will accommodate
the driving simulator’s moving base, which
can raise the simulator up and down by several feet.
“We will use it not as a driver training tool but as
a research tool,” says IAVS director Roger Shulze. “That
means that we will operate it somewhat differently than
was originally intended. Instead of providing multiple,
slightly different driving events, we want to be able to
reproduce precisely the same event over and over again in
order to acquire statistical data.”
The simulator is available to professors for research, to
graduate students for their capstone design projects, and
to undergraduates for senior design projects. Several professors
have already lined up project plans.
Assistant professor Taehyun Shim will use the driving
simulator in his research on incorporating human driver
interaction into the design of integrated chassis control
systems. “In recent years, the use of electronic control
systems, like anti-lock braking and active steering control,
has become increasingly popular in passenger vehicles,”
says Shim. “Although these systems greatly improve the
safety and adaptability of the vehicle to environmental
variations, the driver’s responsive abilities ultimately
determine its overall performance. I’m excited about using
this simulator because not much systematic research
has yet been done on how major differences in driving
TAEHYUN SHIM WILL USE THE DRIVING SIMULATOR IN HIS RESESARCH
behavior among, say, expert vs. novice drivers or old vs.
young drivers might be incorporated in improving these
systems.”
Xiangyang Li, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing
systems engineering, looks forward to studying
actual “drivers” in order to create computational models,
using artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and humancomputer
interaction (HCI) principles. “We’re looking
at creating a comprehensive driver modeling tool that
captures and understands the various aspects of a human
driver in a practical operating setting. Using such a model
helps us gain insight into user cognition processes like
memory overload and cognition bottleneck.”
Other potential projects include the optimization of
“infotainment” displays, lane departure warning systems,
“smart” road signs that calculate a safe speed or a safe
distance to the car ahead based on road and ambient
conditions, and driver distraction studies.
“We have become one of a very small number of universities
with a driving simulator with a moving base,” says
Shulze. “Visteon’s gift puts us in the driver’s seat for
human factors research—or, to be more precise, it puts
us in the driving simulator’s seat.”
15

DEARBORN Engineer
New Development Director Mike Stein
MICHAEL J. STEIN, CFRE
Director of Development
When Mike Stein, the College of
Engineering and Computer Science’s
director of development, joined the staff
last July, he was in effect simply returning
home. “My family is from the Toledo, Ohio,
area,” he says. “I grew up around here.
My wife and I have many long-time friends
here. I’ve always thought of University of
Michigan as a great place, so when the
opportunity arose to take the position, it
was an easy decision.”
Stein, who has worked in development for
the Boy Scouts of America and for Judson
College in the Chicago area for the past
15 years, moved with his wife and children
back to Toledo when he took on the task of
working with UM-Dearborn’s engineering
and computer science alumni. “My job is
to work with alumni and other individuals
interested in giving back to the school in some way,”
he says. “I help them find a means to do that, whether
it’s coming to the campus to speak to current students
about their experiences, serving on an advisory
committee, or simply giving financially.”
This is the first time the college has been able to provide
this level of support for alumni, and Stein finds that
exciting. “In my short time here, I’ve met a number
of people who have said they’ve been interested in
reconnecting or giving something back to the school for a
long time,” he says. “Now I’m helping them do that.”
Stein has a bachelor’s degree in administrative services
from the University of Toledo and his Certified Fund
Raising Executive (CFRE) designation. In his spare time,
he is an avid Harley Davidson rider. “I got rid of my bike
after the kids were born,” he says, “but a few years ago,
my wife suggested we go out and buy another one. I
had to pinch myself. Now she has a license for it, too.
We duke it out over who gets to ride it.”
In Memoriam
NORMAN GJOSTEIN, PH.D.
Norman Gjostein passed away on April 5, 2006. He was
a retired director of research at Ford Motor Company
and a clinical professor of electrical and computer
engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Gjostein was a member of the National Academy of
Engineering, American Society of Metals (former
Trustee), American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical
Engineers, Engineering Society of Detroit (Fellow,
former board member and former Gold Award for Man
of the Year), Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Lambda Upsilon,
and an Evans Scholar. He was also a member of the
Dearborn Kiwanis and Phoenix Club.
WILLIAM SPURGEON, PH.D.
William Spurgeon passed away on February 6, 2006.
Spurgeon came to the University of Michigan-Dearborn in
October 1985 and left the university in 1992. He was professor
of industrial and systems engineering and director of the
manufacturing systems engineering program/laboratory during
his tenure in the College of Engineering and Computer
Science. Prior to his work at the university, he was director of
the National Science Foundation’s production research program.
He had also served on the faculties of the University
of Cincinnati and the University of Detroit. Spurgeon was a
recipient of the Arch T. Colwell Merit Award from the Society
of Automotive Engineers and the Joseph A. Siegel Memorial
Award of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
16

SPRING 2006
Faculty Research Awards
ALAN ARGENTO, professor, and PRAVANSU
MOHANTY, associate professor, both of mechanical
engineering, were awarded $6,000 from the National
Science Foundation (NSF) for their project “Strain Rate
Dependent Properties of Shape Memory Polymers.”
JIRACHAI BUDDHAKULSOMSIRI, assistant
professor of industrial and manufacturing systems
engineering, has received a $15,000 grant from the
Rackham Graduate School in support of research to
develop a new method for identifying relationships
among warranty claims, leading to improved quality
control and cost effectiveness in the industry.
ROBERTO KAMPFNER, associate professor of
computer and information science, received $8,200 from
the University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for
Research (OVPR) Faculty Grants and Awards Program for
his project “Computer-Based Tool for the Analysis of the
Information Needs of Organizational Functions.”
CAROLE MEI, assistant professor of mechanical
engineering, received $15,000 from TRW, Inc. for her
project “Wave Approach in Disc Brake Squeal Suppression.”
PRAVANSU MOHANTY, associate professor of
mechanical engineering, has received $83,512 in additional
funding from the Department of the Army to support
specialized testing and evaluation of materials associated
with his thermal spray technology project.
PRAVANSU MOHANTY, associate professor of
mechanical engineering; ALAN ARGENTO, professor
of mechanical engineering; and SUBRATA SENGUPTA,
dean, have received continuing funding of $337,032
from the Department of the Army to support the ongoing
development of thermal spray technology.
YI LU MURPHEY, professor of electrical and computer
engineering, received funding in the amount of $30,000
from TRW, Inc. for her collision avoidance and pre-crash
detection research.
Murphey also received $69,971 from the U.S. Army TACOM
for her project “Cognitive Electric Power Management in
Military Vehicular Systems Using Artificial-Intelligence-
Based Methodologies and Adaptive Control Techniques.”
ERIC RATTS, associate professor of mechanical
engineering, received $10,000 from the University of
Michigan OVPR Faculty Grants and Awards Program
for his project “An Alternative Heat Pump Based on
the Reversed Ericsson Gas Cycle.”
PAUL RICHARDSON, associate professor of electrical
and computer engineering, received $66,967 from the
U.S. Army
Vetronics
Institute
for his
Vetronics
workshop
series.
These
workshops
will
keep the
Intelligent
Systems
Division, as
YI LU MURPHEY, PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL
AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
well as the rest of the research community, up to date on
the latest technologies. Richardson also received $78,499
to continue his project “Light Armored Vehicle (LMV)
Command and Control (C2) System Upgrade Support.”
TARIQ SHAMIM, associate professor of mechanical
engineering, was awarded $10,000 from Visteon
Corporation for his project, “Development of a Water
Shedding Model.” Shamim also has received $40,000 from
Ford Motor Company’s University Research Program to
support research that will help develop effective emissions
control technologies for lean-burn vehicles.
JIE SHEN, assistant professor of computer and information
science; C.L. CHOW, professor of mechanical engineering;
DAVID YOON, associate professor of computer
and information science; and YI LU MURPHEY, professor
of electrical and computer engineering, received $114,116
from the NSF for their project “MRI: Acquisition of a Laser
Sensor, Computer Workstations, and a 3D SynthaGram
Monitor for Research in Virtual Engineering.”
WEIDONG XIANG, assistant professor of electrical and
computer engineering, received a Rackham Graduate
School fellowship and grant for $14,980 to implement a
“wireless access vehicular environments” testbed. This
project will provide a prototype for protocol testing of
wireless access systems in automobiles.
OLEG ZIKANOV, associate professor of mechanical
engineering, received additional funding in the amount of
$117,382 from the U.S. Department of Energy for development
of computer models of turbulence in steel and aluminum
manufacturing.
Zikanov also has received $6,000 from the U.S. Civilian
Research and Development Foundation for a project that
will help with the development of improved techniques
for oil recovery. This is part of an international cooperative
project with Perm State University in Russia.
17

DEARBORN Engineer
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
2005 DONORS
CORPORATIONS
Alpha Stamping Company
Altair Engineering, Inc.
American Axle & Manufacturing
Ford Motor Company
The Gates Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
Society of Automotive Engineers
ABOVE: ERIC RIDENOUR, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, DAIMLERCHRYSLER CORPORATION
The DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund again donated generously to the College
STM Power, Inc.
of Engineering and Computer Science during 2005. A gift of $86,500 will support a
variety of initiatives, including women and minority scholarships;
the campus chapters of the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society
of Black Engineers; the Challenge X student competition; and the summer bridge
program in math. Additionally, the award will benefit collaborative work conducted
through the college's Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems and the Henry W.
ONE ASPECT OF THE PLANNED ENGINEERING LABORATORY BUILDING ADDITION
Patton Center for Engineering Education and Practice.
FOUNDATIONS
TRW Automotive Fund
BorgWarner Foundation, Inc.
Alumni, Companies,
and Partners
Key to Success
Collins & Aikman Foundation
DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund
DENSO North America Foundation
DTE Energy Foundation
Ford Motor Company Fund
General Motors Foundation
Richard E. and Sandra J. Dauch
Family Foundation
The American Society
for Engineering Education
DAUCH FAMILY
FOUNDATION
18
Timothy M. and
M. Elizabeth Manganello Fund
TRW Foundation
SUBRATA SENGUPTA
AND ROMAN KRYGIER,
FORMER GROUP VICE
PRESIDENT, GLOBAL
MANUFACTURING AND
QUALITY, FORD MOTOR
COMPANY

SPRING 2006
Diverse Scholarships Allow
Students to Focus on Education
Scholarship, Donna National J. Goddard Science Foundation Scholarship, Subrata Sengupta
Frederick P. and Violet Sharpe Endowed Scholarship, and
Eric K. Haupt
Demetrios Serakos
the Henry Patton II Scholarship.
John D. Hervey
Mary L. Severance
Some awards go to outstanding women or underrepre-
Robert W. and Elina
Jie Shen
Hildebrand
Suzanne T. Shomsky
John S. Kozar
Roger C. Shulze
Daniel E. Little
Reiko Tanese
D. M. Lucente
Marlin U. Thomas
Pankaj K. Mallick
Edward M. Vuylsteke
PAUL RICHARDSON
Julius G. Marth
Hal W. Wolfe
R. Andrew Martin, Jr.
To remain competitive and to help ensure academic success,
universities must invest in their students, and the DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, and Detroit
sented minority students, including scholarships from
University of Michigan-Dearborn is no exception. The Edison. These students must maintain GPAs of at least
College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) 3.0 and must outline their reasons for choosing their
offers a range of scholarships, based on merit and need, to career path. Others, like the Csonka and Sharpe scholarships,
take into account the student’s ethnicity and
a broad spectrum of promising students. A primary goal
continues to be an increase in the number and diversity of background in addition to requiring outstanding academic
scholarships for which students can apply.
achievement.
DENSO NORTH AMERICA
FOUNDATION'S Keshav Varde, GIFT associate WILL PROVIDE dean of CECS and professor of Different scholarships are available depending on class
A NEW CLIMATE CONTROL
mechanical engineering, chairs the scholarship committee
that recommends award recipients to the dean. He and National Science Foundation scholarships, while
year. Incoming freshmen are eligible for the Ford, Patton,
LABORATORY
also plans, designs, and implements the Summer Bridge the DaimlerChrysler and Detroit Edison scholarships are
Program in math for students who are awarded certain awarded only to juniors or seniors.
minority scholarships or funds.
“Scholarships are important,” says Sengupta, “because
“Scholarships don’t just help students financially, though even as the costs of education rise, education itself and
that’s important,” says Varde. “They motivate students to the services it provides become increasingly necessary to
do well in college because they reward students for excellent
academic work. They also help attract good students part of education costs are borne by students having to
compete in the modern world. In our culture, a significant
and a diverse group of students who might not otherwise work. This delays graduation, creates disruption in their
INDIVIDUALS
ELINA AND ROBERT W. HILDEBRAND
being able to continue their education, and takes away
from time that could better be spent learning. While some
be able to pursue engineering or computer science programs.
That ultimately translates to benefit to the community
in a more varied and talented workforce that has of these jobs can lead to good experience, the primary
Edward J. Abeska
Lalitha Natarajan
been educated at a good institution.”
focus for students should be attaining an education.
Stephen L. Albertus
Maura P. O’Kennedy Scholarships allow students to do that.”
“We offer both merit- and need-based scholarships,” says
Richard C. Angelo, Sr.
Howard Perkins III
Dean Sengupta. “Merit scholarships allow us to bring in
exceptional Haukur students Asgeirsson who raise the level of our Paul classes M. Progar
and contribute to the education of all students. Needbased
scholarships clearly bring in students who would
Engin Atik
Thomas K. Rothermel
not otherwise Scott Chemello be able to attend our institution.” Van R. Sandstrom
CECS offers Harry approximately H. Cotterill, 90 Jr. scholarships, including John C. the Schultz
DaimlerChrysler Matthew Minority D. Defever and Women Scholarship, Sandra Richard L. Scott
A. Csonka Memorial Scholarship, CECS/Ford Freshman
Alan E. Duncan
Bardhyl R. Sejfulla
Minority Scholarship, Detroit Edison Minority and Women
ROGER C. SHULZE
19

DEARBORN Engineer
Recognition Wall—Brick Program Donors
$5,000 Level
Syed Murtuza
Richard Schaum
Subrata Sengupta
Malayappan Shridhar
$1,000 Level
Richard Anderson
Labib F. Cheaito
John Cole (2)
Angelo Dimitriou
Dennis James Kirchoff
Ben Q. Li
Robert Lust
Ron Modreski
Gregory Pochmara
Roger and Barbara Shulze
Brian G. Stewart
Keshav and Lata Varde
Craig A. Whitt
$500 Level
Diane L. McAskin Blankenship
Robert D. Blankenship
James Castelvetere
Yubao Chen
John Justin Correia
Virgil W. Davis, Jr.
Gregory C. Garcia
Jeanne Girard
Norman M. Haygood, Jr.
Robert W. and Elina Hildebrand
Brad Hodges
Douglas C. Hodnicki
William Brandon McCoy (2)
Richard M. McMahon
Kenneth Moore
James and Sandra Muccioli
Karen G. Pastula and Charles J. Dubauskas
Phil Roussey
Kathryn Tamborino
Manoj Thomas
Yi Zhang
$250 Level
Roger P. Allwin
David H. Bayer
Mahmoud Hani Bdeir
Sharon R. Cislo
Romildo DeOliveira
David Dettling
Jack M. Dickert
Julio Duronio
Andrew J. Flowerday
Jason T. Forton
Florian Frischmuth
James Grose
William Grosky (3)
John William Harvey
Charles W. Heal, Jr. (2)
Thomas J. Helinski
Henry Hojnacki
Shinji Horibe
Scott Horvath
Joe Jackson
Yvette Kline
Robert N. Kramer
Donald Krcmarik
Douglas Kroll
Estate of Janet Kroll
Phillip D. Lavender
Kirk Luckscheiter
Robert Matsura
William Brandon McCoy
Bob McLure
Abdul Lateef Muhiuddin
Troy Mui
Joan F. Osinski (2)
Carl Osojnak
John Pastula
Frank R. Povilaitis
Kenneth K. Prochnau
Sriman Ramabhadran
Maxwell B. Sanborn
Christina Sears (Alpha Omega Epsilon)
Jie Shen
Taehyun Shim
Michael J. Stein
David C. Swanson
Maria Welborne
Chris Westphal
David Yoon
20
Throughout its short history, the University of Michigan-Dearborn
has benefited from gifts made through bequests, creating
endowed professorships, scholarships, and funds named in honor
of generous donors who wished to give back to the university
that prepared them so well for their life. For many donors, a
bequest offers the opportunity to make a gift from a will or living
trust without affecting their current financial situation.
A properly structured bequest allows a donor to specify the
gift amount, outline the purpose of the gift, and identify the
transfer of certain assets to minimize estate and other taxes.
For more information on how to arrange a bequest for the College
of Engineering and Computer Science, please contact Michael
Stein, director of development for CECS, at 313-583-6744 or
mjshd@umd.umich.edu.

Looking for Traditional Education
with Global Accessibility?
Engineering Professional Development
has what you need!
Non-Credit Programs
• Technical Seminars (both public and on-site)
• Customized Training
• Workshops
• International Programs
• Conferences
Distance Learning Graduate Programs
• Automotive Systems Engineering
• Software Engineering
• Engineering Management
• Computer Engineering
Graduate Certificate Programs
Your source
for exceptional
lifelong learning
opportunities
• 14 Topic Areas Available
• Some programs also available via distance
learning
Company Located Programs
• Graduate and Undergraduate Degree Programs
• Live at Corporate Site
• Distance Learning
• Combination of Two Delivery Modes
Engineering Professional Development
Visit http://epd.umd.umich.edu
or call 313-593-4000

Alumni Reception
The college held its annual Alumni Reception on Wednesday, April 5. Alumni
from several graduating classes gathered at the Hotel Pontchartrain in
Detroit, MI, along with faculty members, current students, and staff members
from the College of Engineering and Computer Science. This event is hosted
each year by the CECS Alumni Affiliate and coincides with the annual SAE
World Congress held at the Cobo Convention Center.
ABOVE: CECS ALUMNI
AFFILIATE MEMBERS HENRY
HOJNACKI, ROBERT LUST,
JOHN COLE, AND RICHARD
ANDERSON
Keep in touch
What have you been doing since graduation? Share
your news by using the form online to let us know
about your professional and personal successes.
News is posted in the Dearborn Engineer.
Visit www.engin.umd.umich.edu/alumni
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
College of Engineering and Computer Science
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Dearborn, Michigan 48128–1491
(313) 593-5290
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